With Bosnian Serb forces pressing attacks on the Muslim and Croatian populations in at least two Bosnian cities, Defense Secretary William J. Perry on Sunday ruled out the use of U.S. troops to prevent the Serbs from capturing additional territory. While Christians in the capital of Sarajevo observed their first peaceful Easter Sunday in two years, Bosnian Serb forces bombarded the city of Gorazde in southeastern Bosnia-Herzegovina for the sixth day.

The United States will supply Bosnia's Muslim-Croat Federation with more than 100 heavy-artillery cannons, officials said Friday, dramatically escalating that army's potential firepower. The weapons are part of a $100-million train-and-equip program for the Muslim-Croat army, sponsored by Washington and heavily criticized by European allies. James Pardew, the U.S.

Expressing a new optimism that the crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina is easing, President Bush said Saturday that there can be no military quick fix for the complex conflict. In his third press conference in as many days devoted to the situation in the former Yugoslav republics, Bush emphasized the constraints that limit Western intervention and seemed to gloss over the atrocity stories that have fueled a growing public demand for action to stop Serbian aggression.

When Peter Galbraith, the flamboyant son of famed economist John Kenneth Galbraith, arrived in the Croatian capital of Zagreb in 1993 as America's first ambassador to the newly independent country, he quickly established himself as the most popular diplomat in town. But while he was generating popular acclaim in Zagreb, Galbraith, now 46, was developing a less flattering reputation in Washington.

With Britain and France apparently on board, the Clinton Administration struggled to win international backing Thursday for massive air bombardment in Bosnia-Herzegovina to stem the Bosnian Serb threat against Gorazde, a campaign the United States wants to press even if the rebel Serbs retaliate by seizing hostages. Defense Secretary William J. Perry outlined Washington's objective in stark terms: If the Bosnian Serbs do not back off from any plans to overrun the U.N.

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen on Sunday eased off slightly from his earlier assertion that U.S troops would exit Bosnia by mid-1998, saying, "I believe we will be out in 18 months" but stopping short of an unequivocal withdrawal commitment. Cohen said that when U.S. forces were sent on their peacekeeping mission to the Balkan country in December 1995, "we indicated very clearly that this was a commitment that was short-term in duration."

Clinton administration officials who decided in the spring of 1994 not to object to Iranian arms shipments to Bosnia were faced with a "military urgency" and a strategic "imbalance in favor of the Bosnian Serb forces" that threatened the survival of the Bosnian Muslim government, a senior State Department official told Congress on Tuesday.

The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to urge the Clinton Administration to end the U.S. arms embargo against Bosnia-Herzegovina. The non-binding resolution also said the United States should provide "appropriate military assistance" if requested by the Muslim government. The vote was 87-9. The vote came after calls for an end to the embargo for the sake of "human decency" and after criticism of "inaction and paralysis" by the world community. The U.N.

President Bush's foreign policy advisers said Sunday that they are close to reaching agreement with other U.N. Security Council members on a resolution to authorize the use of "all necessary means"--including military force--to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Declaring that the United States has reached a "hinge point" in its Bosnia policy, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said Tuesday that the Clinton Administration is actively considering a wide range of options to stop Serbian aggression, including some that were rejected earlier, such as allied bombing of artillery positions. "We now face a worsening environment in eastern Bosnia that has horrified the world," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen on Sunday eased off slightly from his earlier assertion that U.S troops would exit Bosnia by mid-1998, saying, "I believe we will be out in 18 months" but stopping short of an unequivocal withdrawal commitment. Cohen said that when U.S. forces were sent on their peacekeeping mission to the Balkan country in December 1995, "we indicated very clearly that this was a commitment that was short-term in duration."

The Central Intelligence Agency has evidence that Iranian agents secretly delivered at least $500,000 in cash to Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic for his campaign before last fall's Bosnian elections, according to classified documents obtained by The Times. The CIA discovered that the Iranians gave Izetbegovic at least two pieces of luggage stuffed with money, each containing about $250,000, to help fund his campaign in the weeks leading up to the elections, according to the documents.

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that he may oppose Anthony Lake's nomination as the nation's new spy chief because of his role in the Clinton administration's secret policy of allowing covert Iranian arms shipments into Bosnia. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.

The United States began handing over $100 million worth of military equipment to the Muslim-Croat federation on Thursday, ending its most serious dispute with Bosnia's new leadership. As workers began to unload wooden crates containing ammunition on the decks of the American Condor, U.S. special envoy James Pardew gave Ejup Ganic, the federation vice president, a certificate of ownership for the weapons, ammunition and other equipment.

Bowing to U.S. pressure, Bosnia's Muslim-Croat government Tuesday fired a senior official with ties to Iran, clearing the way for disbursement of more than $100 million in American weapons. The materiel--part of a U.S. "equip-and-train" program for Bosnia-Herzegovina and including helicopters, assault rifles and 45 tanks--has been floating off the Adriatic coast for nearly a month awaiting dismissal of Deputy Defense Minister Hasan Cengic.

The Clinton administration came "perilously close" to engaging in an unauthorized covert action when it secretly gave a green light to Iranian arms shipments to Bosnia in 1994, a Senate committee said in a report Thursday.

Defense Secretary-designate Les Aspin told senators Thursday that "there's more of a national interest at stake in Bosnia than there is in Somalia" and reinforced a growing belief among some that the incoming Administration may have a greater willingness to use force in the conflict in the Balkans.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher conceded Monday that he has not yet won the approval of any European nations for specific military measures directed against Bosnian Serbs, but he said he has found a growing consensus that firm action must be taken if the Bosnian Serbs fail to live up to a peace agreement signed in Athens.

President Clinton announced Tuesday that he is ready to provide military equipment and training to Bosnia's joint Muslim-Croat army after months of delay over the Bosnian federation's failure to combine the two forces and expel Iranian militiamen. The announcement came hours after the Bosnian federation's parliament, under pressure from Washington, passed landmark legislation formally uniting the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat armies and setting up a joint command structure to run the force.

Months after President Clinton secretly gave a green light to covert Iranian arms shipments to Bosnia, a top State Department official considered asking Muslim nations friendly to the United States to provide alternative sources of arms for the Bosnians, officials said Thursday. Richard C. Holbrooke, then the newly named assistant secretary of State for European affairs, sought a legal opinion from the State Department's attorneys in the fall of 1994 to determine how far U.S.